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whatyasminreads's review against another edition
1.0
Wasn’t sure about this book due to the many bad reviews here, but I decided to give it a go anyway. The bad reviews are spot on - this book is dull, slow, and predictable. Very nearly DNF but I kept going just to see if it would improve (it didn’t). The main twist is interesting, but I saw it coming from a mile off. The book seems far too long and is overly descriptive about mundane things.
Fran was thoroughly unlikeable by the end of the novel. The way she reacts to Lucy’s rape just didn’t sit right with me - she didn’t seem all that shocked or upset to find out the culprit.
I could go on and on about the things I disliked about this book, but I would be here all day.
Fran was thoroughly unlikeable by the end of the novel. The way she reacts to Lucy’s rape just didn’t sit right with me - she didn’t seem all that shocked or upset to find out the culprit.
I could go on and on about the things I disliked about this book, but I would be here all day.
micrummey's review against another edition
2.0
A crime thriller involving murder, religious extremism and family secrets. Told from various view points easily distinguished from each other by character headings.
Someone is bumping off doctors who perform abortions and Francesca suspects her husband, who died in mysterious circumstances is also a victim.
Her family, father and uncles come under suspicion, at about this point, the book doesn't know what it is in terms of genre as goes back and forth between family saga and romance.
The book is overwritten with too many details that are not needed.
Fran comes across as a character who cares for her kids, which is fine, but when these children are put in peril, for reasons which don't make sense she won't go to the police.
In fact involving the police from the start would be what normal people would do. She becomes unbelievable as do other characters through their actions.
This plods along and in the end who really cares about anything?
Someone is bumping off doctors who perform abortions and Francesca suspects her husband, who died in mysterious circumstances is also a victim.
Her family, father and uncles come under suspicion, at about this point, the book doesn't know what it is in terms of genre as goes back and forth between family saga and romance.
The book is overwritten with too many details that are not needed.
Fran comes across as a character who cares for her kids, which is fine, but when these children are put in peril, for reasons which don't make sense she won't go to the police.
In fact involving the police from the start would be what normal people would do. She becomes unbelievable as do other characters through their actions.
This plods along and in the end who really cares about anything?
_xmaxime's review against another edition
4.0
I thought this book was really interesting as this the first book of this genre that I have read. I found it gripped me from the very beginning which does not happen a lot with the books that i read although I found that the storyline quite far fetched and didn't entice me that much and the only reason I carried on reading till the end was to find out the murder. As well I found the writing to be really simple and a little bit lazy especially with a book like this where you need to pay attention to the small details and link each side storyline with main one and for me that did not happen if you read the book to the end you would been able to connect the dots back to Lucy as she had a motive whereas the part with Dex carrying out the murders does not seem right as he had no motive therefore making his addition to the murders not relevant.
I would read this book again although there are some definite plot holes
I would read this book again although there are some definite plot holes
nvengie's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
si0bhan's review against another edition
4.0
Sophie McKenzie is an author I’ve been meaning to pick up for quite some time. So many people I know have read Girl, Missing and seemed to enjoy it – not to mention the fact it always seemed to be pride of place when I’m hunting bookstores for my next read – leaving me curious what the fuss was about. As you can probably guess, I planned to pick up Girl, Missing at some point. However, my introduction to the author came through The Black Sheep instead. Were it not for a Goodreads giveaway, I would be highly unlikely to have picked this one up off the shelf. When I saw the giveaway, however, I thought ‘why not’. I did not expect to win, yet I did. Hence, my introduction to the author.
I’ll be completely honest and say I went into this one tentative. There were so many negative reviews up by the time I received my copy of the book. It left me fearful, yet I would not let it put me off the book. After all, the synopsis did seem interesting. Moreover, initial bad reviews do not mean a book is bad – merely that it isn’t for everyone. Basically, I found ways to convince myself the reviews might have been wrong. Nobody wishes to admit their thoughts of a book are influenced by prior reviews, yet our thoughts so often are.
Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised when I found this book to be much better than the other reviews had me believing it would be. I’ll be honest and say it is not a full four star rating. The past few months I’ve read a lot of books that are sitting somewhere between the three-star and four-star ratings. As I read this when I was first entering the bout of between star books, I was more than willing to round up. Had I read it later into the bout, I may not have been quite so willing. Nevertheless, as the book was not the nightmare I had expected it to be, I opted to round up.
Yes, there are issues with this book. Lots of things are extremely predictable. There were many slow points in the book. It is not as controversial as it could be. The editing could have done with a bit of work before it was published (paragraphs told in conflicting perspectives to the rest of the chapter). However, there were things that are quite good as well. It was addictive. You’re curious about the particulars of how things come together (yes, there is predictability, but you do hold out on the particulars in some cases). You’re pulled into the lives of the characters.
It was far from perfect, but in the end I opted to round to a four star rating. It had the potential to be better, yet it wasn’t the horror I’d anticipated after reading so many negative reviews.
As for whether I’ll read Girl, Missing… I’m on the fence. I may very well do so, but it’s highly unlikely to happen in the near future. I have many books on my to-read list that are a much higher priority than the Sophie McKenzie book so many people seem to know so well.
Still, at least I can say I’ve now picked up something by the author.
I’ll be completely honest and say I went into this one tentative. There were so many negative reviews up by the time I received my copy of the book. It left me fearful, yet I would not let it put me off the book. After all, the synopsis did seem interesting. Moreover, initial bad reviews do not mean a book is bad – merely that it isn’t for everyone. Basically, I found ways to convince myself the reviews might have been wrong. Nobody wishes to admit their thoughts of a book are influenced by prior reviews, yet our thoughts so often are.
Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised when I found this book to be much better than the other reviews had me believing it would be. I’ll be honest and say it is not a full four star rating. The past few months I’ve read a lot of books that are sitting somewhere between the three-star and four-star ratings. As I read this when I was first entering the bout of between star books, I was more than willing to round up. Had I read it later into the bout, I may not have been quite so willing. Nevertheless, as the book was not the nightmare I had expected it to be, I opted to round up.
Yes, there are issues with this book. Lots of things are extremely predictable. There were many slow points in the book. It is not as controversial as it could be. The editing could have done with a bit of work before it was published (paragraphs told in conflicting perspectives to the rest of the chapter). However, there were things that are quite good as well. It was addictive. You’re curious about the particulars of how things come together (yes, there is predictability, but you do hold out on the particulars in some cases). You’re pulled into the lives of the characters.
It was far from perfect, but in the end I opted to round to a four star rating. It had the potential to be better, yet it wasn’t the horror I’d anticipated after reading so many negative reviews.
As for whether I’ll read Girl, Missing… I’m on the fence. I may very well do so, but it’s highly unlikely to happen in the near future. I have many books on my to-read list that are a much higher priority than the Sophie McKenzie book so many people seem to know so well.
Still, at least I can say I’ve now picked up something by the author.
emandherbooks's review against another edition
3.0
I really enjoyed this book at the beginning and thought it really had promise to be a good read for me.
However, it just didn't do it for me in the end. Once it had picked up it seemed to get massively out of control and had about 4 'twists', which lost impact for me slightly.
There was a huge religious element to the book which in the end didn't seem to have any importance at all, which I found a little annoying and confusing.
Left feeling a little underwhelmed by this, despite it being a great premise for a story.
However, it just didn't do it for me in the end. Once it had picked up it seemed to get massively out of control and had about 4 'twists', which lost impact for me slightly.
There was a huge religious element to the book which in the end didn't seem to have any importance at all, which I found a little annoying and confusing.
Left feeling a little underwhelmed by this, despite it being a great premise for a story.
the_coycaterpillar_reads's review against another edition
2.0
I really had high hopes for this book but it just fell flat for me unfortunately. Black Sheep is focussed around the events and the fallout after Francesca’s husband, Caspian is murdered in an apparently random attack. It deals with the effects within her close-knit Catholic family. Some reasons why it just didn’t work for me;
Flaky Character building.
We meet Francesca, a widowed mother of two. She is attending her deceased husband’s memorial service (he was murdered 16 months ago). She is approached by a stranger that flips her entire world upside down for the second time. The information that she receives from this man is that he had received threatening messages from someone that was close to them both. From this point forward she’s looking for any link to what he has told her, it also seems like since she got this information that everyone is know acting differently around her. She’s chasing ghosts, shadows in order to hold onto the possibility that her husbands murder wasn’t just random.
Her Sister Lucy, is a very nervous, timid character due to an event that happened in her youth. She still lives at home with their father and step-mother (decidedly odd). I found her behaviour to just be weird for someone of her age group and didn’t feel her character really brought any substance to the story.
Predictability
From the first few chapters I had worked out the endgame of the story. This was despite twists and turns taken within, it just didn’t provide the shock factor that I think the author was looking to portray. The story was often very slow and points and unfortunately, I found myself thinking that I wish I was reading something else. I also think that the author wanted the subject matter to be controversial, maybe even a bit taboo but for me personally it didn’t have that desired effect. But, it could be a trigger novel for many people. I think it just lacked that Punch!
The Writing was disjointed
Although the main character had suffered such incredible loss, I didn’t really feel any real feeling for her. I wasn’t really feeling connected to any of the characters, which is a real pity as the story as a whole had huge potential. The strongest character, from a written perspective was the best friend Ayesha. The other characters just lacked depth. The paragraphs felt repetitive and in places quite contradictory.
Overall, I just think this book promised more than it delivered which is a real shame.
2 Stars
Flaky Character building.
We meet Francesca, a widowed mother of two. She is attending her deceased husband’s memorial service (he was murdered 16 months ago). She is approached by a stranger that flips her entire world upside down for the second time. The information that she receives from this man is that he had received threatening messages from someone that was close to them both. From this point forward she’s looking for any link to what he has told her, it also seems like since she got this information that everyone is know acting differently around her. She’s chasing ghosts, shadows in order to hold onto the possibility that her husbands murder wasn’t just random.
Her Sister Lucy, is a very nervous, timid character due to an event that happened in her youth. She still lives at home with their father and step-mother (decidedly odd). I found her behaviour to just be weird for someone of her age group and didn’t feel her character really brought any substance to the story.
Predictability
From the first few chapters I had worked out the endgame of the story. This was despite twists and turns taken within, it just didn’t provide the shock factor that I think the author was looking to portray. The story was often very slow and points and unfortunately, I found myself thinking that I wish I was reading something else. I also think that the author wanted the subject matter to be controversial, maybe even a bit taboo but for me personally it didn’t have that desired effect. But, it could be a trigger novel for many people. I think it just lacked that Punch!
The Writing was disjointed
Although the main character had suffered such incredible loss, I didn’t really feel any real feeling for her. I wasn’t really feeling connected to any of the characters, which is a real pity as the story as a whole had huge potential. The strongest character, from a written perspective was the best friend Ayesha. The other characters just lacked depth. The paragraphs felt repetitive and in places quite contradictory.
Overall, I just think this book promised more than it delivered which is a real shame.
2 Stars
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